Draper, Arnaldi reach Madrid Open semi finals

Jack Draper soared to the quarter-finals in the Spanish capital on Wednesday when he dispatched Tommy Paul 6-2, 6-2 in just 68 minutes.

The British lefty clinched his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells last month and has been in red-hot form through his opening three matches in Madrid, also moving past Tallon Griekspoor and Matteo Berrettini, who was forced to retire after losing the first set to Draper.

Playing on Manolo Santana Stadium, Draper ripped Paul apart with his heavy groundstrokes, overpowering the powerless American to improve to 21-2 against players outside the Top 10 since last October.

Draper is the third Briton to reach the last eight in Madrid alongside two-time champion Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund. Competing at a career-high No. 6 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Draper will rise to No. 5 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings if he beats Matteo Arnaldi in the quarter-finals. The 23-year-old, who is into his fourth quarter-final at this level, is the highest-ranked player left in the draw.

Earlier, Arnaldi reached the quarter-finals. The Italian continued his impressive run in the Spanish capital where he overcame American Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 7-5.

The 24-year-old, who upset Novak Djokovic in the second round, played aggressively throughout the one-hour, 39-minute encounter against Tiafoe. Arnaldi dictated the baseline exchanges with his flat hitting and recovered from failing to serve out the match at 5-4 to eventually advance to his maiden clay-court quarter-final above ATP 250 level.

Arnaldi has now earned three consecutive wins against Top 20 opponents for the first time in his career, having also defeated Djokovic in Madrid and Andrey Rublev last month in Indian Wells.

Up seven spots to No. 37 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, Arnaldi will try to reach his second Masters 1000 semi-final (Montreal 2024) when he takes on fifth seed Draper.

Tiafoe had won the pair’s only previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting at Wimbledon last year but struggled to deal with Arnaldi’s flat ballstriking in Madrid and failed to take his chances, converting just one of his seven break points, according to Infosys ATP Stats.